FT.com / Europe - Paris court to hear case on Google books - The Diigo Meta page

• 26 Sep 09
  

  Patrick O'Keefe
  • French publishers will try to persuade a Paris court on Thursday that Google’s ambitious project to digitise millions of books held in US libraries breaches France’s copyright laws.
  • The case is believed to be the first time that Google’s scheme has been tested in court outside the US.
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  • • French publishers say Google has never negotiated with them about its digitisation scheme even though the millions of works held in US libraries already scanned by the company include thousands of French titles.
    • “It is an infernal machine, it never stops,” said Serge Eyrolles, president of the Syndicat National de l’Edition (SNE), which represents 80 per cent of the French publishing industry. “It is a disgrace. It is cultural rape.”
    • The publishers contend that the scanning of in-copyright books without their permissions contravenes French law. They also argue the Google’s scheme runs counter to the Berne convention, a long-standing agreement under which copyright owners do not have to register in every country to protect their rights.
    • The publishers say the settlement also allows Google to determine in advance whether a book is out of print on the basis of whether or not it is available through US bookstores, which are not known for their large range of French titles.
    • The publishers argue that it is only by signing up to Google’s settlement that they can ask the company to withdraw the books that it has already digitised.
    • Arnaud Nourry, chief executive of Hachette, the world’s second largest book publisher by sales, told the FT last month that publishers wanted to work with Google but it had to show itself to be “more reasonable”.
• 25 Sep 09
  

  Jonathan Bailey

  128 googlebooksearch settlement france

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